WhatFinger


Recent lashings are institutionalized methods of punishment in Iran

Iran: The Land of Legalized Human Rights Violations



"It is better for the hands and feet of the subject be tied to prevent the subject from moving that may lead to the whip hitting banned parts of the body"... "Lashing must be carried out as subject is placed lying down on their stomach, with their clothes on, and the lashes are delivered on the back part of the body, instead of head, face and genitals" ... "The lashing must be carried out at a continuous rhythm" ... "[For women] the lashing is delivered with the utmost severity on the entire body, other than head, face and genitals"... These are the articles stated in the "laws" of the "Islamic republic" of Iran under the rules of "Velayat- E -#" (supreme leader) that place this regime alongside 32 other countries supporting physical methods of punishment. And based on these very "laws" during the past months a blogger in the city of Saveh (northern Iran) has been sentenced to 444 lashes; 17 protesting workers in Takab (northwestern Iran) sentenced to 30 to 100 lashes each; 35 individuals in Ghazvin (northwestern Iran) sentenced to 99 lashes each for the "crime" of going to a night party; 9 workers in Yazd (central Iran) sentenced to 50 lashes each; 2 poets sentenced to 99 lashes each for kissing the cheeks and shaking hands of a "non-family member"; 74 lashes for protesters in Tabriz (northwestern Iran)...
Human rights advocates consider such sentences as the legalized "torture" of a defendant. "Flogging is prohibited under international human rights law, in particular the Convention against Torture. The UN Committee against Torture, the Human Rights Committee and UN Special Rapporteurs have repeatedly voiced serious concerns about States' use of flogging, highlighting in particular its use against women, and have called for its abolition," reads an United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights report.

Crackdown & Consequence

National Public Radio's Peter Kenyon shed more light on this phenomenon: "Tehran's police have announced up to 7,000 undercover officers will be on the lookout for those who don't follow conservative Islamic modes of dress and behavior...They're called the Gashte Ershad, the "guidance patrol," and they have broad powers to chastise and even arrest people for failing to meet what might be called the modesty test...Too much hair peeking out from under a headscarf, removing the scarf altogether in the car, taking a walk with a boyfriend--all kinds of actions can risk a run-in with the morality police (as NPR's Deborah Amos reported in 2014)... some women are employed by the Gashte Ershad, but the most common sight is conservative men from the patrol harassing, berating or arresting women." As the regime in Iran cements such a comprehensive climate of fear in Iran, the consequences of this approach and domestic crackdown are utterly shocking. Recent reports indicate a 17-year old boy in the city of Khoramabad (western Iran) hanged himself and committed suicide after learning he had failed a final term exam. Media reports from inside Iran indicate the young man became traumatized and severely depressed after not being accepted in his final high-school exams. He committed suicide in his own room while his mother and sister were present at their home. An increasing number of Iranians, especially women and the poor, are resorting to committing suicide as the only means to put an end to their sufferings under the mullahs' rule in Iran. During the past 12 months alone at least 18 teenagers have committed suicide in Iran, most of them being women, and the result of deprivation and social pressures imposed by the misogynist mullahs' establishment.

Support Canada Free Press


Outrage

The abovementioned "legalized" measures are merely a tip of the iceberg of the human rights violations in Iran that recently prompted 270 Members of the European Parliament to call for the improvement of human rights in Iran. On Tuesday, June 14th these MEPs issued a statement calling on all European Union Member States to condition their relations with Iran on the improvement and advancing of the human rights situation in Iran. The signatory MEPs referred to the skyrocketing number of executions in Iran and also repressive measures against women and religious minorities, adding the human rights situation has deteriorated. The Japan Times posted a commentary on March 28th raising alarm in this regard, saying "brutal and inhumane punishments including death by stoning for adultery, amputations, and vicious and prolonged flogging can be ordered and carried out...In Iran, stoning and flogging are also legally approved punishments." The MEPs statement also criticizes the February elections held in Iran for the so-called parliament, during which under orders issued by Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei thousands of candidates were filtered and disqualified by the ultraconservative Guardian Council, and ultimately deprived of taking part in the elections.

The MEPs also referred to Iran's support for the Bashar Assad regime in Syria and expressed major concerns in this regard. The fact that the Iranian regime has a need to continuously return to its well-known repressive methods only proves that every act of oppression has and will lead to renewed protests, resistance and push-back from a society that is becoming increasingly restive. Here lies a very important opportunity for the international community, and especially the modern, democratic states. "If the West gives appropriate attention to the situation of human rights in Iran, and offers proper support to the Iranian people, it has the power to give that country its final push toward a brighter future," wrote British MP Mark Williams in The Hill.



View Comments

Shahriar Kia -- Bio and Archives

Shahriar Kia is a press spokesman for residents of Camp Liberty, Iraq, members of the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran opposition group(PMOI, also known as MEK), which advocates for a democratic, secular, nuclear-free Iran with separation of church and state and gender equality. He graduated from North Texas University and currently resides in Iraq. His Twitter handle is @shahriarkia


Sponsored